Art of manufacturing cotton yarn



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T. T. ABBOT.

ART 0i" MANUFACTURING COTTON YARN.

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T. T. ABBOT.

ART OF-MANUFAGTIIRING 001 10.11 .YARNI.

No. 317,608. Patented May 12, 1885.

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THEODORE T. ABBOT, OF LUNENBURG, ASSIGNOR TO THE ABBOT SPINNER COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

ART OF MANUFACTURING COTTON YARN.

SPECIPECATIONforming part of Letters Patent No. 317,608, dated May 12, 1885.

Application filed November 8. 1884. (N model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THEODORE THOMAS ABBOT, of the town of Lunenburg, county of Worcester, and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Process of Spinning Cotton Yarn, of which the following is a specification.

In the ordinary process of spinning cotton it is, after being blown and cleaned and made 1 into laps or fleeces, as they are sometimes called, submitted to the action of carding-engines, and there carded and converted finally into a sliver,which is a tape-likeproduct composed of filaments of cotton held slightly together in some way, probably by a slight interlocking of the finer filaments. The sliver is then in drawing-frames subjected to the oporation of drawing and doubling with a view to evening it and bringing itto a condition suitable for the production of an even, firm, and uniform yarn. WVhen the sliver,which at this stage is usually termed drawing, leaves the last of these frames and is received ina can, it has no twist in it, but is still a tape or ribbon 2 with the fibers more nearly parallel to its length than when it came from the cardingengine. Isay it has no twistin it, butthis is not the exact truth, as the cans into which the slivers are received from the finishing cards or the first drawingllead, (viz., that working in connection with the cardingengine,) or some or all of the drawing-frames, have usually a slow revolving motion, and this motion puts one turn into the sliver for each revolution of the can. This twist is, however, almost imperceptible. The next step is to convert the drawing, so called, into roving. This is effected by again submitting it to the action of drawing-rollers which are in the same frame and combined with spindles and fliers, and in such frame the sliver is again doubled or trebled and drawn, or merely drawn, and finally twisted by spindles and fliers and wound upon bobbins. In thistwisted state it is in a second machine wound off from the bobbins and again doubled and drawn, or merely drawn, and again twisted by spindles and fliers and wound upon other bobbins. These last bobbins are usually carried to a third machine, where similar operations are performed, and the material becomes what is and spinning devices for spinning the same called fine roving. Sometimesafourth machine of similar character is employed when finer numbers are required. These four machines, to the first of which the slivers are supplied, each draw and twist the material, and the material after it comes from the first ofthemachinesisknownas roving. These machines are sometimes called speeders, or, respectively, the slubber, the inter- 6o mediate, the "fine roving, and the jackframe. The final step is to convert the roving into yarn. To this end the fine rovings from the last machine of the series, while wound upon bobbins, are next submitted to 6 the operation of mules, throstles, or ring spinning frames, where they are spun into yarn, and in the ring-spinning frames, the throstles, and usually the mules, the roving is further drawn by drawing-rollers before it is spun. Such is the ordinary process of spinning cotton yarn. Its practice necessitates the employment of alarge number of machines, which not only are both costly in the first instance and a source of continuing expense, but require for their use a large amount of room in the factory or mill. Furthermore, it involves frequent handling of the material, which is objectionable, and the twisting incident to the conversion of the sliver into roving impairs the strength of the yarn, and is apt to render it harsh and kinky. WVith a view to obviating these disadvantages various expedients have heretofore been suggested. It has been proposed, for instance, to combine in one machine a carding-engine, rub-aprons or rollers for condensing and putting into shape and conveying the material as it is stripped from the carding-cylinder,

into yarn, the material passing continuously from the card through the rub-aprons or the rollers to the spinning devices. This plan, however, contemplates the splitting of the cotton lap, which is difficult, if not impracticable, and does not provide for evening the silver. It has also been attempted, with what success I do not know, to consolidate the three or four machines usually employedto convert sliver into roving by using in a single machine a number of pairs of drawing-rollers in series, in combination with either stationary or re- IOO volving trumpets or condensers between the sets of, rollers, in order to compact or condense the sliver, and with spindles and fiiers' at the end of the series of drawing-rollers and trumpets, the machine thus organized and when working producing a roving wound upon bobbins similar to that which is usually manufactured by the fine roving or the jack-franie, the fineness of the roving depending upon the number of sets of drawing-rollers employed. This plan is meritorious in that it makes one machine do the work of the three or four ordinarily employed for the purpose; but it still involves the twisting of the fiber prior to the ultimate spinning operation, and the product is distinctively not yarn, but roving made up of twisted fibers, which must be drawn again and ultimately twisted in the mule, throstle, or ring-spinning frame, by which it is spun into yarn.

Manifestly it would be of great advantage to avoid the use of machinery for converting the sliver into roving, and to maintain the sliver in untwisted state until it receives the ultimate twist atthe time it is converted into yarn. This result is accomplished by my invention.

I have discovered that cotton fiber may be spun into yarn by first bringing it tothe condition of sliver, subjecting it to the drawing and doubling operation for the purpose of evening it, and then conducting it directly to the spinning-frame, in which it is spun into finished yarn; I thus avoid the intermediate step of converting the sliver into roving,.

and neither twist the fibers nor wind them upon bobbins prior to the time when the ultimate twist is given to them to make finished yarn.

In the preferred way of carrying out my invention I take ordinary sliver furnished by carding-engines and draw and double these slivers in the ordinary way. These slivers thus drawn have no practical twist in them, although they may have such slight twist as is produced by the ordinary revolutions of the cans into which the slivers are received. In fact, Itake such sliver as is usually furnished to the slubber and convert it directly in asingle machine into finished yarn. In this single machine the sliver is drawn, compacted, or condensed, and spun directly into yarn, thus saving the use of the slubber. the intermediate, the fine roving, and the jack-frame, and putting no twist (except that produced by the revolution of the cans) into the sliver until it receives the final twist on the spindles.

In carrying out my process I neither make roving as an intermediate step of a process nor double nor draw roving, and I find that by my process I produce a yarn of increased strength, which is soft and fluffy and much similar to the yarn which is spun upon the mules in the usual manner. I

To better enable others skilled in the art to understand and use my invention, I have illustrated in the accompanying drawings a machine, also of my invention, adapted to be used in the practice of the process. I wish to be understood, however, that I do not here claim said machine, but that the same is made the subject of separate Letters Patent of even date herewith.

Figure 1 is an end view of the machine. Fig. 2 is a front elevation thereof with the center portion broken away to bring the ends nearer together. Fig.3 is a front elevation of the drawing-rollers with the center portion broken away, as in in the last preceding figure. Fig. 4 is an end elevation of the drawingrollers and their supporting-frame, showing the gearing at that end for driving the said rollers, the bracket or stand which furnishes the bearings for the intermediate gear-wheels, or some of them, being broken away. Fig. 5 is a like elevation of the other end of the frame and rollers with the bracket or stand at that end broken away, as in the last preceding figure.

Fig. 6 is a cross-section on line x w of Fig. 3.

Fig. 7 is a cross-section on line y y of Fig. 3. Fig. 8 is a top view of the drawing-rollers, their driving-gearing, and supporting-frame, the center portion of the rollers being broken away. In that portion of the figure to the right of the break the upper rollers are removed to expose to view the-lower or fluted rollers and the trumpets. Fig. 9 is a section on line 2 2, Fig. 8.

There is shown in the drawings a machine provided with several sets of drawing-rollers, the slivers passing through the grip of six pairs of drawing-rollers of each set. These rollers may be of anyknown construction and caused to revolve by any known kind of machinery, and the upper may be pressed upon the lower rollers in any known way. Moreover, I do not confine myself to any precise number of pairs of rollers, nor to any precise speed of revolution thereof, nor to any precise relation of the speed of one roller to that of its successor in the series; but I prefer to revolve the third pair of rollers at the same or at about the same speed as the second pair, and the fifth pair at about the same speed as the fourth pair, and so on in succession when more than six pairs are used, the fiber being thus drawn between the first and second and the third and fourth and the fifth and sixth pairs of rollers. The slivers may be doubled and drawn by these rollers but I prefer merely to draw them.

. In spinning No. 20 yarn, for instance, Iuse ICO sliver weighing sixty grains to the yard, and

run the first pair of rollers, a a, with a surface-speed of two and twenty-two one-hundredths inches per minute; the second pair, I) I), with a surface-speed of seven and ninetytwo one-hundredths inches per minute; the third pair, 0 0, at the same speed as the second pair, I) b,- the fourth pair at a surfacespeed which is forty-eight and thirty-three one-hundredths inches per minute; the fifth pair, 6 e, at the same speed as the fourth pair,

and the sixth pair at a surface-speed of three hundred and fourteen inches per minute. At these revolutions of the rollers I run the spindles, according to the number of turns to the inch desired in the finished yarn, at from six thousand to seven thousand revolutions per minute. These speeds may of course be varied either absolutely or proportionately for the same number of yarn or for different numbers of yarn and for different weights of sliver; but the experienced spinner will know how to vary the speeds properly or even the number of pairs of rollers, according to the required extent of elongation or drawing of the sliver before it is spun, after reading the rule I have given for No. 20 yarn from sliver weighing sixty grains to the yard. I cannot draw the sliver to the extent required without using trumpets to condense or compact the sliver as it is being drawn, the trumpets serving to gather the outlying oroutwardly-projecting fibers into the body of the sliver; and I prefer to use with six pairs of rollers three trumpets, g h z, for each sliver, the first trumpet acting upon the slivers as it enters the frame, the second applied betweenthe second and third pairs of rollers, and the third between the fourth and fifth pairs; but I intend to use a greater or less number of trumpets. These trumpets I prefer to make stationary or non-revolving, but they may be of any usual construction.

The sliver it, delivered by the last pair of drawing-rollers, is furnished to spindles provided with rings and travelers, (shown at 70 7a,) and spun by them, as usual, exceptthat theyarn receives its whole necessary twist by means of these spindles, the spindles spinning the yarn from drawn and doubled sliver, and not from drawn and doubled roving, as usual. These spindles,rings,travelers,and themechanism for driving them may be of any usual construction.

The sliver to be drawn and spun in my machine'is contained in cans m m, by preference arranged in a double tier one above the other, and supported above the drawing-rollers on a can-stand, 0 0, and the sliver is lifted out of these cans by rollers 12 a, over which the sliver passes,as usual; and I prefer to make the machines double, as shown in the drawingsthat is, with two complete sets of cans, drawing-rollers, trumpets, ring-spindles, and their accessories.

In the operation of the machine the sliver is taken from the cans, drawn by the rollers, compacted or condensed by the trumpets, and finally spun into yarn by the spindles.

I claim as of my own invention- 1. The described process of making cotton yarn, consisting in bringing the cotton fiber to the condition of sliver and drawing and doubling the sliver for the purpose of evening it, then further drawing and compacting or condensing Without twisting the sliver thus prepared until it is reduced to the attenuated form requisite to allow it to be spun directly 

